Like a Tree

My hope is to approach you

The same way I would a tree:

With curiosity.

Your roots are of interest to me,

Your invisible support system

Crucial to your current state of growth.

While I yearn to know you,

Define you I cannot.

For you are more than your roots, your bark, your branches.

You are wild, unique and pure!

A creature of the forested world,

Standing tall and weathered.

The seasons you’ve endured

Internally shape your structure.

Each year, your thicken your layers.

You are resilient to change.

An accepting observer to the way of the world.

Your naturalness I adore.

Peaceful to the core.

Others trees I’ve met before

Are rooted in stillness.

You, however are a creature on the move,

Fast and wild and free,

Rootless,

No place to be.

Unlike a tree,

You talk to me.

Your words soft as the stars,

Sometimes sharp like bars,

Locking me in to look through the window of defensiveness.

In times of anger I am reminded

To return to the forest within.

To seek similarities

Between you, me, and the tree.

For each tree I love

Before meeting it and

After it falls.

In you I can see

How you strive to be

Like a tree,

Like me.